When Jennifer Foster needs assistance serving a client's needs for her small public relations and social media business, help is usually right outside her one-room office door at Bamboo Detroit, a co-working space in downtown Detroit.

"If you needed anything, you just had to stand up and ask and say, 'Hey, I'm looking for somebody that knows about such and such.' And you built an instant network," said Foster, owner of Catalyst Media Factory.

Catalyst Media Factory is one of 200 businesses ranging from one-man bands to 10-person companies that use Bamboo Detroit's two floors of open and private office space in the historic Julian C. Madison Building at 1420 Washington Blvd.

Foster and Bamboo co-founder Mike Ferlito talked about how the shared office space model works in an interview for the Crain's "Detroit Rising" podcast at Bamboo.

For Foster, being in Bamboo has given her a coveted downtown Detroit mailing address and access to a stream of potential clients — small startup businesses and nonprofit organizations that also are members of Bamboo.

"We're very casual — we wear jeans and T-shirts. We don't spend money on expensive suits," Foster said. "We don't spend it on expensive office space, but we have good space. And it certainly suits our needs."

Companies utilizing Bamboo include businesses working in the fields of construction, real estate, investing, lending, information technology, public relations, nonprofits and various business support services.

Ferlito, a partner in a family real estate firm called The Ferlito Group, believes co-working spaces like Bamboo and WeWork will become more prevalent in downtown Detroit as office space become scarce and rents rise.

The ability to work remotely in a collaborative environment also is appealing to younger workers, he said.

"I think the whole office space in the real estate sector is going to change in the next 10 years," Ferlito said. "Companies are starting to realize that their employees want different atmospheres."

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